Schools to revise penal policies

Proposal seeks to address racial disparity in number of suspensions, arrests

January 21, 2008|By Marc Freeman Staff Writer

Black students face suspensions and criminal arrests in far greater numbers than their white peers in Palm Beach County public schools, records show.

Totaling about 28 percent of the school district's enrollment, black students accounted for 54 percent of all out-of-school suspensions in 2005-06, according to the most recent statistics available. White students were about 42 percent of the population and accounted for about 24 percent of suspensions.

"The racial disparities are pronounced in Palm Beach County," said Jim Freeman, a staff attorney with the Advancement Project, a Washington D.C.-based watchdog organization. "We think implementing these reforms will go a long way."

But Superintendent Art Johnson said he has told the groups that the school district already is attacking the problem and continuing to reduce out-of-school suspensions.

Before an audience of community and juvenile justice leaders, Johnson in October unveiled a proposal for an "alternative-to-suspension" program, which he says responds to one of the Advancement Project's requests. That program is to begin Tuesday, the start of second semester.

Under the program, students receive an excused absence rather than a suspension if they report during the school day to community centers that have district instructors and security.

Instead of suspensions for low-level offenses such as repeated bullying and disruptive behaviors, students could be assigned to the centers at their principal's discretion, said Diane Curtis, manager of the district's dropout prevention/alternative education department. Suspensions for criminal offenses such as weapons possession would still have to be served, she said.

The alternative-to-suspension program will open with one site, the Northwood Youth Empowerment Center in West Palm Beach, exclusively serving students from Bear Lakes Middle School. Officials plan to expand to Lake Worth and other community sites over the next few months; one school would be linked with each site.

Johnson predicts once the program is fully engaged "we will see that [racial disparity in suspensions] drastically improve."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Advancement Project joined together to slam the school district's discipline practices in studies published in 2003, 2005 and 2006: Derailed: The Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track; Education on Lockdown: The Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track; and Arresting Development: Addressing the School Discipline Crisis in Florida.

In its 2005 study, the Advancement Project declared that in Palm Beach County the problem extends beyond suspensions and "black students are particularly susceptible to unnecessary arrests."

Citing a 2003 report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the civil rights group said nearly 64 percent of school-based arrests involved black students, more than double their percentage of the county's student body.

"The sad reality for students of color is that the combination of attitude, perception, and subjective interpretations made by both the police and many school staff has produced significant racial disparities in who gets arrested," the Advancement Project wrote.

Debra Robinson, the School Board's only black member, has joined the criticism of the district's zero tolerance and discipline policies, which she says contribute to the needless criminalization of children.

Robinson thinks "a large part of the problem is just a cultural divide" that leads to black students' unfair treatment.

"We are still seeing the disparity," she said, noting that district leaders appear to be more receptive to policy changes than in the past.

Local educators are encouraged by a trend of fewer suspensions and criminal cases in recent years. Suspensions dropped from 15,890 in the 2003-04 school year to 14,345 in the 2005-06 school year, according to a state report.

In the 2005-06 school year, 16 percent of middle school students served out-of-school suspensions, down from 17.3 percent the prior two years, but up from 14.8 percent in 2002-03.

But 10.9 percent of high school students served out-of-school suspensions in 2005-06, down from 13.1 percent in 2002-03.

The Advancement Project's and NAACP's No. 1 recommendation is to limit the discipline offenses that result in students entering the criminal justice system, the Advancement Project's Freeman said.

In Johnson's response, he noted that during the past four years, police handled only 6 percent to 7 percent of discipline cases each year.

"The vast majority of discipline events occurring each year do NOT involve reporting to law enforcement, mandated or otherwise," the superintendent wrote.